Word of the Year?

The Law School Academic Support blog
reports that, "according to Merrian
Webster, blog is the word of the year
for 2004."

Deep Web Research

From LLRX, January 17, 2005

Do you want to extract more from your web
research? Marcus Zillman, Executive Director
of the Virtual Private Library and Founder/
Creator of BotSpot®, has just published
Deep Web Research 2005 on LLRX.com.

"Zillman's guide extensively documents
resources that include articles, books, websites,
presentations, search engines, and technology
applications that facilitate the challenging task of
accessing information, published in many formats,
that encompass the hundreds of millions of pages
comprising the "deep web."

Google Scholar Workshop

Just a reminder that Bob Weiner and I will be conducting
a faculty workshop on Google Scholar and other Google
utilities.

The program will be held:
Tuesday, February 1
Noon - 1pm
Room 100

Please join us to learn how Google Scholar can help you
identify academic material in all formats
through their new search service.

Uniform Law Commissioners Database of Acts, Drafts & Legislation

From Tom Mighell's Internet Legal Research Weekly,
January 23, 2005:

"The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform
State Laws is responsible for drafting the "Uniform Laws"
that we see on so many standard subjects. On the main page,
you can search the various Acts to see the status of Uniform Laws,
from draft to final legislation. You can also search by committee,
to see what each group is working on. This site does not appear to
have been updated recently, so be careful to independently verify
the information you find here."

Innovative New Legislative Research Tool

From the BeSpacific (Law & Technology News) blog by
Sabrina I. Pacifica, January 19, 2005:

"Joshua Tauberer, a grad student at U. Penn, has created
an amazing legislative tracking service, GovTrack.us, which
won the top prize in the Technorati Developer's Contest.

The site's automated monitoring services are free, and the
data is obtained from federal sources including THOMAS
and the websites of the U.S. House and Senate. Users may
track bills, issues or committees, representatives, or topics.
Daily or weekly email updates are available for registered
users, as well as news feeds. The site also includes blog postings
on legislation, by authors registered with the site to have their
comments appear on the GovTrack Blog."

New York Times: Full-text on Westlaw from 6/1980

From Mike Winn, our Westlaw Customer Service
Representative, 1/14/2005

"The Full Text of the New York Times is now on
Westlaw. (DB identifier is NYT). The coverage starts
with June 1980, and is up to date with today's edition."

United Nations Documents Center Online

Forwarded by Rosemarie Romano, Access
Services Librarian:

As of December 31, 2004, the United Nations Official
Document System (ODS) is open to the public.
According to the press release, "ODS covers all types of
official United Nations documentation originating from
duty stations worldwide, including selective documents
of the regional commissions: Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) and Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

Comprehensive coverage starts in 1993. Older United
Nations documents are added to the system on a daily basis.
Selective coverage of General Assembly and Security Council
documentation currently reaches back to 1985. The ODS also
provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly,
Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship
Council from 1946 onwards."

Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

From Cornell's Insite current awareness
service, 1/17/2005:

"The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
at Harvard is to make human rights principles central to
the formulation of public policy in the United States and
throughout the world. The Center’s website offers
visitors access to the organization’s articles, case studies,
reports and speeches, as well as bibliographic information
about the Center’s publishedbooks.

The Center’s “Program Areas” cover topics such as “American
Exceptionalism,” “Nongovernmental Organization (NGO)
Effectiveness,” “Social Psychology to Conflict Escalation,”
and “Religion and Human Rights.” These Program Areas
produce working papers, conference reports, meeting
summaries, and other colloquia materials, most of which are
freely available."

The Carr Center website is searchable.